Month: March 2009

The Three Little Pigs go Po-Mo

I know I just did a picture book roundup, but I’m really excited to share two picture books I got this weekend, both a deconstruction of the story of the Three Little Pigs: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by A. Wolf as told to Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Lane Smith; and The Three Pigs (book #54 for 2009), written and illustrated by David Wiesner.

I have had a fascination for postmodern picture books since I was in college, and I have a growing collection of them. It totally revolutionizes picture books as we know them, and it’s great genius on the part of the writers and especially the illustrators.

Postmodern picture books are often characterized by:

  • Nontraditional ways of using plot, character, and setting, which challenge reader expectations and require different ways of reading and viewing;
  • Unusual uses of the narrator’s voice to position the reader to read the book in particular ways and through a particular characters’ eyes (this can be achieved by the written or visual text);
  • Indeterminacy in written or illustrative text, plot, character, or setting, which requires the reader to construct some of the text and meanings;
  • A pastiche of illustrative styles, which require the reader to employ a range of knowledge and grammars to read;
  • New and unusual design and layout, which challenge the reader’s perception of how to read a book;
  • Contesting discourses (between illustrative and written text), which require the reader to consider alternate readings and meaning; intertextuality, which requires the reader to use background knowledge in order to access the available meanings; and
  • The availability of multiple readings and meanings for a variety of audiences.
(Anstey, M. (2002). “It’s not all black and white”: Postmodern picture books and new literacies. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy)

Now, I’ve long been a fan of Lane Smith, especially when he’s teamed up with John Scieszka, because they just make me laugh out loud! I have a growing collection of their picture books, starting with The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Stories, Squids will be Squids, Cowboy and Octopus, Pinocchio, and Math Curse. I think I’m just missing a few – Science Curse, the Abe Lincoln book, and Seen Art?.

I’ve had a paperback copy of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs for around 4 years now, but when I saw the hardcover, 10 year anniversary edition of the book at Book Sale for only P120, I just had to have it (never mind that I bought the paperback full price, for more than twice the amount.

The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, with Totoro :)
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs is told from the wolf’s point of view, and he cries out, “I was framed!”

He pleads not guilty, stating, “Hey, it’s not my fault wolves eat cute little animals like bunnies and sheep and pigs. That’s just the way we are. If cheeseburgers were cute, folks would probably think you were Big and Bad too.”

cheeseburger: wolf version
A. Wolf, or Alexander T. Wolf, shares his side of the story, the real story, he says, which is about a sneeze and a cup of sugar.

Apparently, he was making a birthday cake for his granny when he ran out of sugar, so he went over to the pigs’ house to borrow a cup of sugar. The problem is, he had a bad cold, and when he sneezed, the first two houses – the one made of straw and the one made of sticks – collapsed on top of the their owners, and the wolf thought it would be a shame to let some perfectly good ham go to waste.

The third house was brick, though, and the wolf had a nasty exchange of words with the third pig, who wouldn’t lend him a cup of sugar for his dear granny’s birthday cake. So he huffed, and he puffed… and that’s how the cops found him.

He says that the cup of sugar story wasn’t exactly breaking news, so the police jazzed up the story and he became famous as the Big Bad Wolf.

breaking news!
Lane Smith’s rich, textured illustrations make the story doubly funny, adding little (sometimes morbid) jokes into the illustrations. The 10 year anniversary edition, which I now have, throws in a few more laughs: there is a letter from A. Wolf complaining his ten-year imprisonment and decrying the testimony made by a certain girl in a red riding hood. The back of the book has also been vandalized with different opinions on the case.
wall graffiti
Now that I’ve “done a Blooey” on this book, i.e. upgraded yet another paperback into hardcover (in Flippers/Moochers terms), I now have a spare copy of the book (in pristine condition), but I think I already have someone in mind for the book. I’ll have to find out if that person has this already, or else it’ll go into my BookMooch inventory.

By the way, I’m really loving how hardcover picture books from the US have “reinforced binding” that make them good for lots and lots of readings. Hopefully my (future + hypothetical) kids get to appreciate my growing collection of picture books, which ran out of shelves, like, several dozen books ago. I wish they’d devise the same type of binding for other types of books.

My second book for today is The Three Pigs by David Wiesner, who has fast become another one of my favorites, ever since I found a battered copy of Tuesday in a bargain bin (I think the one I mooched got lost in the mail).

According to the jacket, “Ever since the pigs took to the air at the end of Tuesday, he [Wiesner] has wanted to give them a book of their own” – hence The Three Pigs, which received the 2001 Caldecott Medal. It amazes me how this guy just racks up the Caldecotts.

Before reading this book, I’d have thought The True Story of the Three Little Pigs would be a tough act to beat, but Wiesner does a great job with this book. Aside from deconstructing the story, The Three Pigs deconstructs the actual structure of the book, with a touch of metafiction, as the characters become aware that they are characters in a book.

It starts out as the regular Three Little Pigs story, but the wolf huffs and puffs so hard that he blows the first pig right out of the story. Confused, the wolf moves on to the next house, but as he huffs and puffs, the first pig coaxes the second one out of the story and the wolf is even more confused when he finds the second house empty.

When the two pigs reach the third house, the third pig is surprised because they haven’t been eaten up. They knock away some pages of the book, fold it up, make a paper plane and have the time of their lives, until the plane crashes into a crumpled heap.

folding the pages
My favorite scene — the paper plane ride
The three pigs find another story and they enter it – it’s Hey Diddle Diddle. They get out of the story and the cat with the fiddle follows them out. They enter another story, this time with a dragon, and they save the dragon from getting slain by taking him out of his story.

The pigs finally go home to their story, and piece it back together so that the wolf gets to the brick house, and when he huffs and puffs and is unable to blow down the house, the dragon pokes his head out and the letters from the text get scattered. The pigs decide they’ve had quite enough and leave the wolf outside while they (pigs + cat + dragon) all head inside to have some soup.

Dragon’s head butts into the text, scattering the letters
I love how smart David Wiesner’s books are, and this one reminds me of one of my favorite book series, Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series. I like how the pigs defy the structure of the book, jumping from one story into another, ultimately taking charge of their fate.

I also love how Wiesner uses different styles to establish the jump from story to story, and the pigs adapt to the illustration style wherever they are situated— from the vintage style of The Three Little Pigs, the realistic style of the “space” outside the books, the simplistic style of the nursery rhyme book, and the coloring book style of the dragon story. When the pigs are halfway out the story, they’re also illustrated in half-and-half styles. Wiesner is such a genius!

The pigs jumping into the coloring book-style dragon story
The Three Little Pigs is a great children’s classic, but it’s even better when it goes po-mo! :)

***
My copy: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, hardcover 10 year anniversary edition (upgraded from Scholastic paperback); The Three Pigs, hardcover — both P120 at Book Sale

My rating: The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, 5/5 stars; The Three Pigs 5/5 stars

A Pig, A Panda, and a Tiger (Picture book roundup #4)

Another picture book roundup for lazy Sunday, so I can catch up on my reading (cramming a few more books into what’s left of March). Today’s roundup includes three award-winning books: Olivia, written and illustrated by William Falconer (Book #51 for 2009), Zen Shorts written and illustrated by John J. Muth (Book #52 for 2009), and A Visit to William Blake’s Inn by Nancy Willard, illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen (Book #53 for 2009).

I’ve wanted an Olivia book for so long, but I rarely buy picture books for more than P100 at Book Sale so I had to wait until I came across this great P65 board book. Olivia is the latest addition to the list of my character-based collections – Madeline, Babar, Curious George, and Eloise.

Olivia (Caldecott Honor Book 2001) is the story of that now-familiar scribbly pig who likes fashion, art, ballet, and books — a very cultured pig indeed. This picture book has few words, and as the story is character-based, there is not much of a plot. It’s mostly an introduction to Olivia as a character, and the rest of the Olivia books tell the stories.

The illustrations, of course, make the book special (hence the Caldecott). Olivia’s peculiar appearance gives her instant recall — a top heavy pig with little spindly arms and legs, rendered in charcoal and gouache, looking like she’s been scrawled onto the page. Olivia is mostly grayscale (except when she gets sunburnt at the beach), with the occasional spot color (usually clothes), and the simplicity emphasizes her comic appeal — she’ll have you in stitches with the visual humor that appeals to all ages.

There’s something very French and chic about Olivia (and not just the name) that delights me, because it’s unexpected from a pig character. The book is great for a budding fashionista — Olivia, and her family dress up in decidedly French styles – maillot swimsuits, striped shirts, turtlenecks, opera gowns, sailor dresses and dark shades. Her cultural tastes are also French, from Degas (there’s a Pollock too, though) to ballet, and Callas.

Next on the lineup is Zen Shorts (Caldecott Honor 2006), which I actually read a couple weeks ago for the Flippers’ Japanese book discussion. I found my paperback copy at Book Sale for P60, and as soon as I spotted it, I knew I had to buy it.

Zen Shorts features a panda named Stillwater, who befriends siblings Michael, Karl, and Addy. Enclosed within this story are three Zen “shorts” – short stories from Zen Buddhist literature that challenge the reader to reexamine his or her habits, desires, concepts and fears. In the same way, Stillwater uses the Zen “shorts” (“Uncle Ry and the Moon,” “A Heavy Load,” and “Farmer’s Luck”) as gentle teaching tools for the three kids.


There are two illustration styles used in this book, a full-color watercolor wash for the main story, and a heavier pen and ink style for the Zen Shorts, a great juxtaposition of Western and Oriental techniques that mirror the realistic Western story framing three stories of Oriental philosophy. I like how this all ties together in introducing abstract philosophical concepts to kids, with Stillwater as the very huggable sensei, not to mention that it makes for a very engaging picture book.

The last book, A Visit to William Blake’s Inn: Poems for the Innocent and Experienced Travelers caught my eye because it had both the gold and silver badges (Newbery Medal 1982 and Caldecott Honor 1982), and it was only P65 at Book Sale.

The book is about a fictitious inn owned by William Blake, which houses his fantastic creations, such as the Rabbit, the Rat, the Wise Cow, the King of Cats, the Tiger, and the Man in the Marmalade Hat. William Blake is also one of the characters in this collection of poetry that pays homage to Blake’s work.

Gouache paintings bring the poetry and all its vivid characters to life, with intricate architectural details. I love the tigers and the cats in particular, who remind me of my beloved Tabby, Tomas :) A beautiful book showcasing beautiful poetry, this is a great addition to my picture book collection!

***
My copies: Olivia, board book; Zen Shorts and A Visit to William Blake’s Inn, paperback

My rating: Olivia 5/5 stars; Zen Shorts 5/5 stars; A Visit to William Blake’s Inn 5/5 stars

A love affair… with BookMooch


A year and three months ago, I discovered BookMooch, and life, as I knew it, went flying on a crazy tangent.

How has BookMooch changed my life? Let me count the ways:

1) My To Be Read (TBR) pile has over 200 (okay, so it’s nearly 300, but who’s counting?) books in it, and I acquire books faster than I can read them.

2) I have received nearly 500 books from the Philippines and all over the world, including the US, Canada, China, Japan, Singapore, Iran, Australia, UK, the Netherlands, Ireland, Finland, Germany, Italy, France, sweden, Trinidad and Tobago, Portugal, Brazil, and more, and sent over 500 books to these countries as well.

3) I have become acquainted with postal procedures and have ingratiated myself with my postmen (of my office and of my residence), postal workers and customs officer (who had a magical change of heart after I uhmm dangled a prospective subpoena in front of his nose), and have learned that snail mail still works! And that good things come to those who wait.

4) I have waded through more bargain book bins this year than my whole life combined, seeking out cheap books for my BookMooch inventory, because…

5) I have learned that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure, and that giving away the books I don’t want to keep to people who will love them and give them good homes is a most gratifying feeling, especially when a P5 (approx. $0.10 USD) is a book someone halfway across the world has been in search of for so long.

6) Even without my digital kitchen scale (a wonderful investment!) I have learned to approximate weight in 250g increments (because those are the weight classifications for surface mail) by holding objects in my palm, which comes in handy when picking out bargain books for mooching, eking out the last odd kilo in check-in baggage, and estimating the cost of fresh produce at the supermarket.

7) I have an excuse to stock up on heavy brown wrapping paper, catalog envelopes, packaging tape, book-sized plastic bags (for insulation), bubble wrap, scotch tape and markers to wrap mooches in (the same way I have an excuse to hit the bargain bookstore twice a week). I also have a stack of over 500 postcards (mostly from various counters here and in Singapore thanks to my sister dear!) for writing notes for my mooches.

8) I have gone through quite a few recyclable canvas bags that have burst due to the sheer number of books I stuffed into them… Once the handles literally popped off after I claimed 8 parcels at the post office!

9) I have made wonderful friends, such as the BookMoochers Pilipinas family, which holds MoochParties every so often to showcase the brilliance of our members (we have BookMooch Jeopardy, BookMooch auctions, bookswaps) and we’ve organized bargain bookstore warehouse raids too! I’ve also made wonderful friends abroad, like wired_lain in Japan who has been supplying me with the Japanese books (and chocolate and green tea and other odds and ends like a funny talking calculator and a Doraemon notepad) I want, Vee in California who has sent me a lot of wonderful books (and chocolate and coffee and pretzels!), and the countless other members who have gone out of their way to send me a book that I want.

10) I have pimped BookMooch to everyone who will listen (and sometimes even those who won’t), including my friends, the Flippers, my officemates (whose eyes go agog at the packages (and even boxes!) of books shipped to me at work), unsuspecting bookstore browsers and coffeehouse patrons (hehe, I slip in a BM card in strategic locations every so often), national broadsheet readers (yup, I wrote a full-page article for Manila Bulletin), and even marketing officers of bookstores and publishing houses (hehehe)

11) I now have a growing collection of books I can’t read because they’re not in English but I love them all the same, including the film books of the Studio Ghibli films, and yes, my now-famous collection of international editions of Harry Potter (yes, it often induces some amazingly dexterous eye-rolling but I don’t care) which is now close to 80 books, including hmm, let’s see, Japanese, Chinese, contraband Persian, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Latin, Italian, German, Spanish, Irish, British Kids, British Adult, US, Czech, Polish, Danish, Swedish, Croa
tian, Israeli, Jewish, Ancient Greek, and many more editions (one day I will blog about all of them, I promise)

My Harry Potter shelf
12) I’ve learned the value of time, down to the single second, after repeatedly experiencing the mad scramble for a highly coveted book seconds after it gets listed – I must tell you, I never imagined I’d break out into a sweat just clicking on “save” (on the BMP threads) or “mooch book now”

13) My name is now a trademark in my book circles, because my irrational and obsessive habit of “upgrading” paperbacks into hardcovers, which my book club friends call “doing a Blooey”

If you’re not already on BookMooch, I imagine reading through my list would have confused you, so here’s the lowdown, which I’m borrowing from that article I wrote on Manila Bulletin last year (go take a look at it if you want).

BookMooch (www.bookmooch.com) is a free website where you can give away books you don’t need or want. In return, you get to “mooch” the books you want from other people.

John Buckman, former CEO and primary programmer of Lyris Technologies, and founder of online record label Magnatune, came up with the idea for the site because he needed more space for his books but couldn’t bring himself to throw books away.

“I had stacks of books on my shelves that have been read once, but will never read again. The local used bookstore would only be interested in a few of them, and will pay next to nothing for the books they do want. I figured there’s got to be a better use for perfectly good books” notes Buckman in an interview posted on the site.

“On the practical side, the opportunity to save money and free up shelf space is a motivation to use BookMooch. But not everything has to be about making profit,” Buckman explains. “Sometimes, it’s fun to just give a book to someone. It feels good to recommend a book to someone, to pass it on, so they’ll enjoy it.”

BookMooch also offers a solution for books that are hard to find, out of print, or not locally available, because you never know – somewhere in the world, someone could be willing to part with a copy of that book.

“BookMooch is like a giant bookstore, of all the bookshelves in people’s homes,” Buckman states. “By aggregating everyone’s home book collection, we should have the best selection of used books on the planet.”

How it works:

Basically, BookMooch works on a point system. In order for you to get the books you want, you need to earn points, which work as the BookMooch currency.

In your inventory, enter books that you’re willing to give away, and you get 1/10th of a point for each book. So for every 10 books in your inventory, you get 1 point.

Bookmooch has a built-in search engine that reflects if a book is available, the number of copies available, the users who are giving away the book, and even related editions of the book.

So when someone wants a book in your inventory, you respond to the request, and send the book to them. You are awarded one point for each book sent locally (taken from the requestor’s account), and 3 points if the book is sent to another country (2 from the requestor, 1 bonus point awarded by BookMooch for the effort of sending abroad).

While you shoulder the expense of sending a book to someone, you mooch the books you want for free. When you find a book you like and request it from a person who is willing to send it to you, points from your account get transferred to the sender’s account (1 point local, 2 points for international mooches). When you receive the book, you get another 1/10th point (.1) by leaving feedback for the sender.

If the book you want is not available, you can add it to your wishlist, and you automatically get an email notification once someone adds it (or an edition of the book) to their inventory. If you click the “get from Amazon” link in your wishlist instead of waiting for a free copy, BookMooch gets a small (5%) commission from Amazon.

My prize finds? I really can’t single out, there’ve been so many, especially for the hardcover fiend that I am. Let’s just say my present collection will not even be half of what it is now if not for BookMooch; scrolling through my blog entries, you’ll find that almost every other book in there was a mooch.

Sign up for BookMooch now, and mooch from me or thousands of other moochers all over the world. And if you need help getting started, we at BookMoochers Pilipinas will always be glad to show you the ropes and regale you with our best mooching stories.

Hope to see you on BookMooch soon! By the time you rip open that package of that first international mooch, I swear, your life will never be the same again.

Now off to what looks like a great Saturday. Don’t forget to switch off your lights for Earth Hour, everyone! :)

Splash! Awards

Because I’ve been given a Splash! award by Susan, I’d like to return the favor and give some Splash! awards to other book blogs I’ve been reading regularly.

The Rules:

1) Put the logo on your blog/post.
2) Nominate up to 9 blogs which allure, amuse, bewitch, impress or inspire you.
3) Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4) Let them know that they have been splashed by commenting on their blog.
5) Remember to link to the person from whom your received your Splash award.

(Squee. I just realized this is my first meme!)

Here are my splash awards
1) Back to Susan, whom I admire for turning book blogging into a social activity. You always have something new, interesting to read every time I check your blog, and it’s always from the heart too :)

2) Peter, because I was hooked from my first visit to your blog! I look forward to reading your entries, and I feel gratified that there are more book lovers in this country.

3) Honey, my Flipper friend! I love how eloquent you are in your reviews, and how you go out of your way to aggregate little bits of book info for us bibliovultures. And now you’ve started a crusade to unite all book bloggers and promote book blogging in the Philippines, a cause I fully support!
4) Jo, because I love how organized your reviews are. And I just discovered your archive (!), yay, lots more to read through!

5) Marie, another Flipper friend! I enjoy your company because we have very different literary taste, and I admire your take-no-prisoners attitude towards books :)

6) Patti, who is one of my inspirations for blogging. When I saw your WordPress blog last year, I knew I wanted a blog of my own!

7) IHop, another one of my inspirations. You have a blog for everything, and someday I’d like to do that too! And I love how I can imagine you as I read your posts, like we’re talking face to face :D

8) Keyla, whose blog I discovered today. I’ve been seeing you in Shelfari, and you’ve added me too, and your love for books is infectious :)

9) and one last — Color Online, because the advocacy is admirable, and the blog goes out of its way to reach out to readers and make empowerment fun! :)

(I wish I could add more!)

Some good, old-fashioned fun (The big 5-0 milestone!)

I’d seen Jeanne Birdsall’s The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy (Book #50 for 2009) on bookstore shelves for some time already without really wanting to pick it up, until my officemate Andi gave me a hardbound copy (thanks Andi!) as an early Christmas present, along with a glowing recommendation. The book was shrink-wrapped, and there was no blurb at the back so I decided to look it up online to find out more about it.

I was surprised to find out it won the 2005 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature (among a plethora of awards, making it Book #9 for the FFP Diversity Challenge, award-winner) and I was so curious about the book that I moved it up my TBR list.

The story revolves around the adventures (and misadventures) of the Penderwick sisters Rosalind (12), Skye (11), Jane (10), and Batty (4) — together with Dad (a widower) and faithful dog Hound — on their summer holiday in the countryside, in a quaint rental cottage on the grand estate of Arundel.

I like the Penderwicks because although it’s set in modern time, it’s throwback to the family classics, reminding me of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Sidney Taylor’s All-of-a-Kind family, and even a bit of Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle. There are no fantastic creatures, no magic powers, no slam-bang special effects — just a very charming, feel-good family story.

It’s great how Birdsall took care to make the characters distinct; usually the pitfall of family stories, especially those with lots of kids, is that only one or two personalities stand out, and the rest fade into the background. I like the sensitivity towards fleshing out each sister — you can easily tell them apart, like Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy in Little Women.

Rosalind, the eldest, is the serious, responsible one. She’s patient with her siblings, although she loses her patience once in a while, and has that take-charge / surrogate mom attitude. Losing their mom at a young age, she’s had to fill in some large shoes in taking care of her sisters, and she often comes across as quite mature for her age. It comes as a relief, though, that she hasn’t grown up too fast — she gets her first taste of unrequited love in that summer, and it’s amusing and poignant at the same time.

Skye is the tempestuous sister. While you wouldn’t say she’s the wild child, she’s definitely no lamb either. Adjudged to be the family beauty (she’s the only one with blue eyes and silky blonde hair like their mom, the rest have brown eyes and curly brown hair), Skye is a no-frills tomboy and a loudmouth to boot, but is fiercely protective of their family.

Jane is the writer, the dreamer, often with her nose buried in the notebook into which she writes her Sabrina Starr stories. With a fertile imagination and a creative spirit, Jane is much given to building great adventures out of everyday experiences, and breaking into lyrical speech whenever an opportunity presents itself.

Little Batty, the baby of the family, is the shy soul, often obscuring herself in the shadow of her sisters, but acutely perceptive of her surroundings, and truly a bit batty, as her name suggests. She is also an animal lover, with Hound often following close at her heels.

It is truly an idyllic summer for the sisters in the country side, where the cast is rounded out by the handsome gardener Cagney, the generous cook Churchie, Harry the tomato-grower, the snooty Mrs. Tifton and her boyfriend Dexter Dupree, and the spirited Jeffrey, who soon becomes initiated as an honorary Penderwick.

The novel’s simplicity is its charm, and there very few children’s books in this day and age that dare strip down to good, old-fashioned fun because it is almost inconceivable, but Birdsall manages quite gracefully, and bags a National Book Award while she’s at it.

The Penderwicks is a must-read for tween girls; it’s a great introduction to the classic Little Women. And there’s a sequel, too: The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, which I mean to read soon (just as soon as I get some plastic cover on it!)

Here’s a little doodle :)

***
My copy: hardcover, with dust jacket

My rating: 4.5/5 stars